


Return of the Stone World by Dr. Stone

by Sky_King



Category: Dr. STONE (Anime), Dr. STONE (Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Book author au, Byakuya best dad, Canon divergence after the stone wars, Chrome is very smart, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Humor, Future (lol) Chrosen, Ishigami Senkuu and Chrome become famous, Ishigami village is petrified, M/M, Past Chrome/Ruri, Remembering the departed through writing, Saving the World, Saving the world from global petrification is a sideplot, This tag will make sense in time, Time Travel, World hunt to find the author
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 08:41:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24966898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sky_King/pseuds/Sky_King
Summary: There's a webnovel that's been going viral lately, by an anonymous poster that goes by “Dr. Stone”.The story they write is a mix of fantasy and sci-fi, where an overly smart teen, and his friends do their best to survive and save the world.Although nobody seems to know who Dr. Stone is, certain people notice an uncanny resemblance to said fictitious characters.Who is Dr. Stone, and how much of their tale is real?(At the same time, Senkuu and Chrome are trying to save the world, can't they catch a break?)
Relationships: Chrome/Ishigami Senkuu, Ishigami Byakuya & Chrome (Dr. STONE), Ishigami Byakuya & Ishigami Senkuu
Comments: 16
Kudos: 100
Collections: Dr. Stone Week 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I began writing this the first of January lmfao  
> oh man
> 
> The beginning is a little bleak bc of the whole apoc vibe, but it gets better I swear! 
> 
> I really hope you like it!

“Any progress?” Chrome asked, his voice cracking and dry, as he peeled back the curtains to Senkuu’s lab.

It wasn’t so much of a question as it was just a tired greeting. They had been working on a solution for close to a year now.

A lonely, lonely year.

“Hey,” Senkuu shot back, not even bothering with fake platitudes. His hair was matted and stiff, probably having gone unwashed as many days as Chrome’s. The older man was tired, exhausted, deep dark bags under sunken eyes. His lips were cracked, his cheeks hollow.

Chrome gulped down his sadness. “Talk to me,” he said instead, weaving his way carefully to the heavy laboratory log by Senkuu’s elbow.

In big chicken-scratch letters it read, “Experiment # 31436”, followed by:

FAILURE

“Ethylamine, useless. We need a different approach.” Senkuu drawled tiredly as he picked up the Erlen-Meyer flask he had been mixing before throwing it against the opposite wall.

The glass shattered, and the laboratory was saturated with the smell of the chemicals within.

Chrome licked his lips, but refused to admonish him. What could he say anyway?

Don’t waste resources?

Don’t contaminate the lab?

What did it matter?

What did it matter when it would all end soon?

“Thirty-one thousand-four-hundred-and-thirty-six.” Senkuu mumbled under his breath, finally sinking into the abandoned chair by his desk. “I propose we give up.”

“Don’t say that,” Chrome whispered without energy. His hands, ever-trembling rose to clutch at his shirt. “Please don’t say that, Senkuu… there must be…”

“Chrome,” He interrupted, leaning back and staring at the ever-expansive sky beyond the decaying roof of his laboratory. “Face it, we’re dying.”

“No, Senkuu, there still must be-!”

“Must be what? I’m all ears.”

Chrome hesitated, hurt by his friend’s callous words. He felt lost. Scared. “But… if there’s no cure… then what are we supposed to do?”

Senkuu closed his eyes. He was so thin, so exhausted. He already looked like a corpse.

Chrome couldn’t be much better himself.

Both men were silent. Silent in the dead, silent world around them.

The older teen raised a hand to rub his forehead, a testament to his exhaustion. “We should just… go to sleep.”

“…Is there really no other option?”

Senkuu let out a sigh, heavy with the weight of the world. “I’m sorry.”

The silence around them seemed to crawl inside Chrome’s chest. Surrounding him, slowly suffocating him.

He opened his mouth again, feeling fifteen again and standing at the edge of the Sulphur lake for the first time. “…I’m scared.”

“Don’t worry,” Senkuu said softly. “It doesn’t hurt.”

“Right,” Chrome said.

Unsurprisingly it didn’t make him feel any better.

He was right though.

What else could they do?

Chrome scowled as the thought threatened to weigh him down. As if the fact that they were both alive and together no longer meant anything.

As if…

As if there really was nothing else to do.

“I’ll get you something to eat, then.” Chrome said, gritting his teeth against the apathy. Against the loud silence, and the stench of failure.

“Don’t bother,” Senkuu laughed, echoes of a dying man. “There’s nothing that’s not a fucking stone.”

“There still must be something.” Chrome insisted. The other teen just waved a hand at him and with a sigh, Chrome exited.

Chrome didn’t like going outside anymore.

It was cold, dark and dreary. Everything, the grass, the ground, the trees. The animals, the birds, the fish.

The people.

Everything.

Everything was stone.

Solid, impregnable.

Slowly but surely, the stone had claimed it all.

Slowly but surely, it had killed the planet.

Chrome still struggled past the sharp bushes, leaving the eerily silent village with its cold statues, digging into cold ground with his fingers, begging to find even a root, a mushroom, _anything at all_.

But his fingers found nothing but cold stone.

Chrome sighed, letting himself fall back on his back.

Senkuu was probably right.

It was over.

The world was ending.

The world _had_ already ended.

They were just the last to know.

He let himself fall heavily on his back.

The ground was cold.

What was even the point of trying to find food?

He hadn’t been able to find food for the past two weeks.

Their reserves had run out a week ago.

Thirty-one-thousand failed attempts.

No miracle fluid that could break through the stone this time.

Tears jumped at his eyes.

Thirty-one-thousand failures.

The sky was dark, dotted with stars. Cold and probably as dead as everything else.

Three-hundred-sixty-seven days since it all began.

Two hundred-fifty-three since the food began to grow scarce.

His mind began to wander, strained in its exhaustion, his hunger.

Ninety-nine days since he’d last spoken to Ruri.

Fifteen since he had last seen her statue.

One day since they’d had a last idea for a miracle fluid.

Twenty-three minutes since the great Ishigami Senkuu himself gave up, at long last.

And fifteen seconds since he too…

…

Chrome rubbed at his eyes tiredly, squinting as the darkening sky above began to blur.

As if the sky was being covered in wispy, white tendrils of something a shade whiter than clouds.

Chrome’s eyes snapped open.

The mist was still there.

And actually, it was too tangible to be mist, too sparkly. It was like liquid quartz floating up in the sky, around him, everywhere.

Chrome bolted to his feet.

He needed to find Senkuu.

Even as he ran, tripping on stone bushes, and shattering stone blades of grass, the swirling supernatural mist continued to condense, following him without a hitch.

He stumbled into their makeshift lab, gasping for breath.

He was about to say something about the mysterious floating cloud outside, but for one second he forgot about it as they stared at each other.

Chrome, covered in sweat and struggling to get air in his lungs.

And Senkuu with tiny gem-like tears hanging from his eyelashes, clinging to his cheeks like precious diamonds.

Senkuu blinked first, dislodging the tears. He cleared his throat and tried regaining some sense of composure.

“What’s up?” He rasped out in a thick voice as he sat up.

“Senkuu,” Chrome began, unsure of how to convey his panic. “Senkuu… outside…!”

That was as far as he got before the mysterious, terrifying mist found its way inside. Like a blast of cold air, it swept the entrance flap aside, crowding in the space between the last two remaining humans on earth.

Before their terrified eyes it coalesced, all the tendrils flowing towards a single point between both sciencers.

_My children._

Chrome thought it would be a good idea to step away from-

His mind was inundated with thoughts, sensations, memories that weren’t his. Incomprehensible, unfathomable for his senses.

He felt a mother doe nudging her foal to her feet. He was a worried father tucking his children to bed.

He was an eagle teaching his offspring how to fly.

He was love and tender pride. He was warmth.

Warmth of the sun on the petals of a rose, sweet scents for a tired worker bee.

Everything stopped. The beat of a thousand wings seized in midair, colorless, lifeless. It was cold, tragic and dead. It was soul-wrenching and upsetting and-

_Go back._

The flower was brought back to vivid color, folding in on itself, becoming a bud, shrinking, shrinking, becoming a seed.

Seeds.

Seeds deep in the soil, rich and vibrant with life. Life like the doe, and the herds. Like the herds that were many, then one, as the forest shrank, became a spindly seedling struggling into its shell.

Shell, strewn across the beach, first sun-bleached, then back into the sea, sea teeming with life.

The tides receded, and grew and shrank with the multiple cycles of a moon flowing in reverse.

_Go back._

Breaths taken, exhaled. Life returning to the Earth, to the bodies.

_Go back, my children._

Senkuu breathed through a dozen lungs, felt their lives winking in and out of existence, a single breath, unimportant in the eternal flow of life.

He was few, then he was many, the stone losing its grasp on life, crumbing, fading.

The petrified planet breathed again a sigh of life, the stone shrinking away until it was just a petrified swallow shattering against the ground.

Mourning.

A single life, a broken chain of what would be.

Would have been.

_Bring back what would have been._

Then everything faded.

Their empty husks shattered against the ground.

But they were no longer there.

* * *

In the science room of a high school, Ishigami Senkuu dropped the volumetric flask in his hands as he doubled over, a hand over his chest.

He staggered back until he hit something, or someone, the world was spinning, spinning, spinning, everything was loud, so loud, where was he what was going on he was so confused, the world- the world was so

So

Confusing.

(So warm.)

Ishigami Senkuu collapsed then.

When he next woke up, he would never be the same.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another short chapter, but length will pick up soon!  
> Updates are not gonna be daily tho lmfao, I just don't think I'll have my day 2 fic ready in time.
> 
> Enjoy!

“…gami-san, can you hear me? How are you feeling?”

Senkuu opened his eyes.

He wasn’t dead.

He wasn’t stone either.

Slowly, he tried to sit up. Whatever he was lying on was soft, so soft he couldn’t even think what sort of material it could be. It was like lying on a cloud.

“Am I dead?”

“Ishigami-san, don’t be so dramatic. You just collapsed. Have you been overexerting yourself lately?”

Senkuu turned to look at his speaker. A lady dressed in a white labcoat was sitting by his side. She was wearing glasses and makeup and Senkuu wanted to know where the hell she had gotten those.

She was frowning at him. “Ishigami-san, can you understand me?”

“Where…?”

His mind struggled to understand what was happening, what was going on. His memories vague like fog, like white mist that covered everything and…

A sense of desperation clawed at his chest as he struggled to recognize his surroundings, the cream-colored walls, the bed, the lady sitting in front of him.

His wandering eyes landed back on her. She looked concerned. “You are in the school infirmary; do you remember?”

“What…?” His voice was feeble, broken. Terrified. “What year is it?”

The nurse stared at him, eyes growing wide as she began looking for her phone. “Ishigami-san, I’m going to contact your emergency contact now.”

Senkuu didn’t care, perhaps didn’t hear past the hysteria in his ears. He lunged for her, grasping her wrist in a bruising grip and almost falling off the bed. “WHAT YEAR IS IT?!”

She flinched. “It’s-it’s February sixteenth, 2019.”

He wheezed, half a laugh, half a sob.

2019.

Exhaling what felt like three thousand years’ worth of exhaustion.

2019.

Had…

Had he really travelled through time…?

He let go of her, falling back onto the thin mattress, feeling the soft, cheap linen under his hands.

His eyes stared at the ceiling blankly, letting himself be blinded by the- by the artificial lighting affixed to the ceiling.

Shit.

How long had it been?

How-?

The breath of relief choked as he remembered, he hadn’t been alone.

2019.

If this was really 2019, then where was Chrome?

(He was the last one left, if he had failed him too then Senkuu no longer had a reason to…)

The nurse had left for a second to get the contact list, but when she next noticed, her student was gone.

Oh no.

_Chrome, Chrome, Chrome_ , Senkuu chanted in his mind as he dashed through the corridors, eyes scanning the sea of people, in search of his friend. _Where are you, Chrome?_

He wasn’t here.

No matter the state he had come back in, he would have been looking for him as well.

He…

He…

Where was he?

(It couldn’t be…?)

Suddenly hit by inspiration, Senkuu began dashing out of the-

Wow, it was a building.

He’d really been inside a building just now.

_Had he really made it back?_

He continued to run.

He panted and huffed as he ran on a body unused to such exertions. Not like his physical state in the… future? Had been any better after the Second Petrification happened.

But he needed to make it home.

He needed to remember his way home.

And if Chrome was not at the Ishigami household, then come hell or high water, he would make the world _pay_.

* * *

His legs were killing him by the time he reached what he vaguely remembered to be his house. He couldn’t stop in time and slammed himself, chest and face against the fence. The steel rattled, as he grabbed onto it for dear life.

Everything hurt.

Everything burned.

How…

How did he get in again?

Senkuu struggled to remember, his hand sliding against the metal gate. He used to open the gate all the time, all those millennia ago. How… How…?

Key! Right, he needed keys, he had keys, right?

Gasping like a landed fish, and feeling his vision swimming with lack of oxygen, he palmed every pocket on his person as he prayed for a key to appear.

Fortunately, he found a set of key inside his pants.

Shakily, he fumbled to open the gate, stumbling on his own feet as he staggered over to the door.

He struggled with that lock too, but finally he was inside.

He didn’t remember this place.

Not like he should.

His thoughts wanted to wander, grief disguised as nostalgia threatening to overtake his rational mind. But no. Not right now, not when he didn’t know what-

He heard scuffling in a room out of sight. A yelp. A familiar voice.

“Chrome…?” He whispered as he rushed upstairs, almost managing to slip and give himself a concussion on the last step. He slammed into yet another wall, as his legs gave up on him, _but he was almost there and he was sure he had-_

He opened the door.

Tangled in fresh bed sheets, and as naked as the day he’d been born, Chrome looked up at him from the floor, looking just as dumbfounded as him.

His eyes watered as Senkuu rushed to smother him against his chest.

“You’re alive,” He whispered against his shoulder, twig-like arms wound tight around him. “You’re alive… you’re here…”

“Senkuu, your face!” Chrome exclaimed, his voice loud, mouth nearly level with Senkuu’s ears. The echoes of it, thrumming in his chest alongside a happy heartbeat. He laughed. “You look younger! And healthier! Where is this? Where are we? Are we dead? Is this the afterlife?”

Senkuu laughed wetly, coughing when his spent lungs burned with the exertion. “I think not, Chrome. I think… I think we’re at my house.”

Chrome separated himself first, snotty-nosed and looking around with a confused expression. He did not let go of Senkuu’s arm, and Senkuu clutched at his hand in return. “Wait, does that mean…?”

Senkuu laughed again, and it was probably a sob.

“Welcome to the modern world, Chrome.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Byakuya appears next!  
> Hope you liked, lmk what you're thinking so far!


	3. Chapter 3

When Ishigami Byakuya came back home after work, and found the gate and the door to his house open, he was understandably worried.

He had cut his lectures short upon receiving a call from a rather distressed school nurse, saying that his son had collapsed and then run away.

Saying that Byakuya was worried would be an understatement.

As he made his way inside, taking his shoes off at the entrance– noticing how Senkuu’s _weren’t there and where was his son_ – then the television was turned on, and someone exclaimed, “That’s baaaad!” at the top of his lungs.

He did not recognize that voice.

Arming himself with an umbrella he grabbed from the corridor, he sneaked his way to the living room to find two teenagers cuddling in the coach facing their flat-screen.

He dropped the umbrella.

“Senkuu?” He called, so surprised he completely forgot about the teen holding hands with his son. “Senkuu what are you doing here?”

The smile on his son’s face was wiped away.

He paled to alarming shades of white, as his mouth worked silent words, looking at him as if Byakuya had just killed someone in front of them.

Alarm bells began ringing in his head, to the beat of his panicked heart. “Senkuu…?”

“…Dad?” His son whispered.

For one second he looked heartbroken.

“Hey,” He said, trying for a smile, and only managing a small quirk of his lips. “What’s wrong, buddy?”

(For one second, he had seen behind his mask.)

Senkuu, his skittish son sprang up from the couch, feet hitting the floor as he lunged for him, wrapping him in a tight embrace.

Byakuya staggered back, stumbling under the weight, the surprise. Senkuu slammed into him, hands clutching at his clothes as if his life depended on it.

“When did you…?” His voice was trembling.

He was trembling.

“…Senkuu?” He returned the hug, hesitant, worried. “Are you okay?”

Senkuu laughed wetly. “I guess I will be.”

With those confusing words, his son ended the moment by breaking away, blinking away the shine of his eyes. “Er, welcome. Welcome home. I’m… well, this is…This is… this is my friend Chrome.”

Overwhelmed by seeing the founder of his village in the flesh, and put on the spot, Chrome couldn’t do anything but duck his head, bushing softly as he replied. “…Hi. Heard… eh, heard a lot about you.”

* * *

Byakuya’s mind was on overdrive, as he tried processing everything that he’d been told over the phone, the open gate, the way Senkuu looked a wrong word away from breaking down. Somehow when he looked at the strange boy rubbing the back of his head and wearing suspiciously familiar clothes that were just slightly big on him, he didn’t have any mind capacity left. “…Is he like your boyfriend?”

“Wha-?” The dark-haired teen began, looking struck. He looked past Byakuya, to Senkuu as he broke out in soft giggles. “His-? Oh no, that’s hilarious, no, I’m married, actually!”

His presented hand, however, did not bear a ring.

Everyone seemed to notice at the same time and the teen’s face fell, like a curtain call on the sun. “I- I was married, I guess. I’m not… I’m not sure…”

Senkuu walked up to him with an inscrutable expression. He grabbed his outstretched hand, laced their fingers together, startling him out of his stupor.

“It’s…” Okay, he wanted to say. But honestly, nothing really was at this moment. They were alive. They were alive and well but… Ishigami village was gone. Ruri. Kohaku.

They were all gone.

Forever.

Left frozen, three thousand years in the future. Or erased from existence, however this absurd time travel even worked.

Chrome sniffed.

“I’m here.” Senkuu found himself saying. It wasn’t a solution, not by far, but that was the best he could offer. “You’re here, and we’re going to get through this, right, Chrome?”

The teen rubbed the tears out of his eyes. He still looked desolate, but at least the smile he aimed at him felt genuine. “I’ll- yes! That’s what- that’s what she would have wanted!”

Senkuu quirked a half smile before letting go. He rubbed at the back of his neck as he turned back to look at Byakuya, unsure of what he’d make out of that.

“I’m… not sure what’s going on, but I’m sorry for your loss, um, Chrome-kun was it?” Byakuya, ever the model father figure said, smiling softly at the two teens. By the way the teen’s face crumbled, he realized it must have been extremely recent. Not knowing what else to offer, he said. “Normally, I’d invite any new friends of my son out for ramen, but I feel like tonight we should all eat here. I’ll… I’ll go to the store, actually. I don’t think we have enough for some miso soup.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Senkuu said, taking a seat by his new friend’s side. He looked exhausted.

“Senkuu,” Byakuya felt his heart twisting by the way his son tensed, looking on the wrong side of nervous as he returned his stare. “I’ll leave you guys for now, but… I’ll need you to tell me what happened, okay?”

The way his son rubbed at his forehead with the palm of his hand had no reason to look this tired, this old.

“Right, of course.”

Byakuya forced himself to leave before he did anything they would all regret.

* * *

“That was your father, holy shit!” Chrome mumbled, curled into a small ball on the couch and directing the most bewildered expression at Senkuu. “Can’t believe I just met the great Ishigami Byakuya. Oh, man. This is so bizarre.”

“Tell me about it,” Senkuu whispered, leaning against the armrest, and covering his face with the palm of his hand. “I never thought I would see his ugly mug again.”

“How is he your father, though?” Chrome mumbled, prodding his thigh with a foot. “He looks kind. And happy. And good with emotions. You’re… none of those things.”

“We’re not related by blood.”

“You’re not related to gremlins either, yet here you are.” Chrome rebutted, managing a chuckle despite the emotional exhaustion.

“Smartass.” His voice was trembling.

Chrome uncurled just enough to be able to fall heavily against his side. “Sure, sure.” He said, calm and patient as sobs began wreaking an already spent body. Chrome joined in.

There was nothing else to do.

When Byakuya came home for the second time that day, laden with grocery bags, he almost dropped everything when he found both teenagers messing around with the microwave.

They both had puffy, red eyes, irritated noses and flushed cheeks, so he wisely decided against asking. The microwave pinged, loud and insistent, and Senkuu took out the cup of hot water before it stopped.

Smiling impishly, he showed it his friend, who was staring at the device, and the cup with slack-jawed amazement. “That’s so badass!”

Then Byakuya picked up the whiff of burnt toast, looking around he saw the blackened remains scattered on a plate. By its side there were numerous kitchen gadgets Byakuya had bought over the years in an attempt to coax himself to cook more. They were scattered haphazardly over the counter, as if taken out for an impromptu lecture. Which, looking at the way Senkuu kept talking about the microwave to his eager friend, was probably not far from the truth.

At least they hadn’t tried _cooking_.

“Boys,” he called, remembering to set the grocery bags down at last. “I’m happy you’re having fun, but I’m going to have to ask you to get out of the kitchen while I cook. I’m sure you’ll find something more interesting to do.”

Senkuu’s smile dimmed as he realized he was back. “Right, right of course. I’ll- Chrome wait for me in the living room, I need to help clean up.”

“Oh no, no you’re not.” Byakuya said with a frown as he crossed his arms over his chest. “You have a guest over, go keep them company!”

Senkuu blinked repeatedly, as if unsure of his words or his own emotions. “But…”

“It’s okay, son. I promise.” He said instead, letting his voice soften. This earned him yet another bewildered expression. “Your friend’s waiting for you.”

Senkuu looked back at the living room, seeing Chrome fiddling with the tv remote. He half-turned to leave, before he asked. “Hey, da-Byakuya, is it okay if he stays with us?”

“You know that I don’t mind,” Byakuya said softly, that same unease of before coming back to him in full force. “But he needs his parents’ approval first, okay? I don’t want any panicked father knocking down my door later.”

Still acting nothing like the son he knew, the teen in front of him stammered, trying to get the words out as fast as he could. “He doesn’t… He doesn’t have fathers- I mean, parents.”

Well, “fuck.”

Oh no, he hadn’t meant to say that.

“Okay, well… Whoever is…” He trailed off, remembering young Taiju and knowing that if Chrome had had any kind of adult taking care of him, his genius son would have already said so. “Okay.” He said. “Alright then, tell him if he wants to stay over.”

“…Actually,” Senkuu began, rubbing a hand against the back of his neck.

He didn’t use to do that, Byakuya suddenly thought. Not this frequently.

“Yes?”

“I was kinda hoping you’d let him stay… indefinitely.”

Byakuya stammered, started speaking then stopped, drowning in his own worries.

“He’s always welcome under our roof.” He managed to whisper when no other words would come out.

That seemed to be the right thing to say, as tension bled away from his shoulders.

“Right, thanks.”

“Senkuu?” He called out to his disappearing son. He was half expecting to be brushed off, for Senkuu to ignore him, pretend he hadn’t heard.

His son stopped. His shoulders looked so heavy. “…Yeah?”

“I don’t… want to pry.” He began, hesitant and honestly scared. Of saying the wrong thing and scaring his son off. Scared of the implications of everything they were not saying. “But… if your friend was in an accident, he should go to the hospital.”

“…He doesn’t need to.”

“Alright then.” Byakuya said. “Can you promise me you’ll tell me what happened when you feel you can? I know you’re not one for mushy displays of affection but… I’m worried for you, Senkuu.”

Senkuu was silent for a long, long minute. Then he sighed, tired, exhausted. “We’ll be fine. We have to. I know this… Look, it’s a lot for us too. I’ll- I’ll keep it in mind. You don’t have to worry though, I’m alive.”

Somehow his choice of words only made Byakuya worry more. “Right of course. Go on then, your friend is waiting.”

He knew that asking questions would get him nowhere, but still, he couldn’t help the thought burning in his mind.

_What happened to you?_

* * *

When the soup was ready, Byakuya called them to the kitchen in a broken voice.

They all pretended there was nothing wrong, as they sat down at the table.

Byakuya started eating when the other two hesitated, then his son followed looking intently at his hands as if he needed to copy his actions. His friend followed then.

“Have you…” Senkuu began, voice hesitant as he broke the awkward silence. He began fiddling with the spoon in his hands. “I think we were having sightings of stone… birds. Do you remember anything at all?”

“Stone birds?” Byakuya asked, frowning in worry. “I thought you were conducting an investigation yourself?”

Senkuu blinked repeatedly. “…Oh. Oh right.”

Silence.

“Um,” Chrome began, looking between the both with nervous eyes. “What stone birds?”

“This is how it all began,” Senkuu said cryptically. “Stone birds popping all over the world.”

“What about the Nital?”

“I hadn’t even begun considering that.” Senkuu grimaced, gripping the spoon with enough strength to begin bending it.

Byakuya opened his mouth. Then thought better of it.

“Well,” His friend continued, fingers drumming against the edge of the table. “You know way more than before. I’m sure we can figure it out, Senkuu.”

“ _Chrome_ ,” Senkuu snapped, slamming his fist against the table, the ceramic on the table rattled. “Shut the _fuck_ up.”

The teen cringed, shooting Byakuya a not so discrete look. “Right. Right, sorry.”

“Do you boys need any help?” Byakuya offered, feeling unnerved and lost and _so worried_.

Senkuu scowled his way, opened his mouth ready to protest or deny or shut him down. He snapped it shut, then just stood up. “Maybe. Maybe, we we’ll need your help. You should stay on stand-by, Byakuya.”

In any other household, in any other family, this would have come across as impudent. As disrespectful.

But Byakuya saw his son trying to open the door for him, and he could only sigh in relief.

“Sure thing, Senkuu. Anytime.”

Senkuu fled the scene with taut shoulders and tense lips. But the little sigh of relief that left his mouth escaped no one.

Chrome looked at the disappearing teen with concern, but when he found himself alone with Byakuya he began to fidget nervously as he hurried to chase after Senkuu as well.

Before he disappeared, Byakuya stopped him.

“Hey, Chrome-kun.” He said, looking intently at him. “Please be careful, the both of you.”

“We’ll try,” Chrome replied, smiling contritely. “Sorry about all of this, it’s just… been a lot.”

By the way he grimaced and sped out of the kitchen, that sounded like the understatement of the year.

Alone at the table, Byakuya sighed.

* * *

Chrome wondered if he had inadvertently lied to Ishigami Byakuya as he helped his friend smuggle out nitric acid and ethanol from his school’s storage the morning after he’d said that.

Chrome was now wearing Senkuu’s spare and almost brand new sports uniform as to “blend in”. Senkuu was still in his regular uniform, cursing under his breath as he tried every single key he had found in his bag for the right one.

Chrome was beginning to think the man did not have the proper one, when they heard a click and they were finally in.

“If you have access to all this, wouldn’t it be easier for us to work here instead?” Chrome whispered, closing the door behind him and watching Senkuu grab the inventory logbook and began searching for the needed chemicals.

“And what would I explain to them, Chrome?” Senkuu whispered back, opening his bag and pulling out two dark, opaque vats roughly the size of his head. “Oh, I just want to try de-petrifying these stone birds. Oh, they’re real birds trapped in stone, they’re not props! Oh, what am I doing? Just trying to stop the end of the _fucking world._ ”

“Found the ethanol. Um, how are we…?” Chrome decided to just not reply, having found a bigger problem. The ethanol container was…. Rather big. “Wait, we’re not really going to pipet five liters are we?”

Senkuu snorted. “Good luck.” The nitric container was smaller, and he was already tipping it to fill one of the containers. “We don’t need that much anyway. Ethanol is far easier to procure, even if we’re both underage.”

“Underage?” Chrome asked as he ransacked the cabinet for the proper equipment. Oh, was this a pipette bulb? There were so many of them! “We’re not kids.”

“By law, you can’t sell alcohol to people younger than 20.”

“What? Why?”

“Alcohol poisoning can be extremely dangerous to the developing brain. Also teenagers are even dumber under the influence.”

“Wine keeps you warm in the cold,” Chrome grumbled as he fetched the other vat and began filling it. “This sounds like an over-exaggeration.”

“Less talk and more steal,” Senkuu snorted at him, closing both containers and shoving the unmarked one back into his bag. “You don’t even like alcohol that much, why are you even complaining?”

The door jiggled. From the other side, they could hear a girl calling out a name, and a boy arguing with her.

Chrome and Senkuu shared an equally panicked look.

Yuzuriha and Taiju.

“You’re bringing this for a class,” Senkuu whispered urgently as he hurried away from the door, huddling behind some boxes in the furthest corner of the storeroom.

“ _What class_!?” Chrome whispered back, distressed. But too late the door was opening and he suddenly found himself face to face with none other than Taiju.

He…

Looked weird without the scars. Was Chrome’s first thought.

It had been a while since he had last seen him alive, as well.

Or, well… not stone.

“AH!” The other teen exclaimed, brow furrowed. “YOU’RE NOT SENKUU!”

Behind him, Yuzuriha tried to squeeze herself in, making soft shushing noises at her friend. “Taiju-kun, you’re too loud! I told you he wouldn’t be here! Sorry, about this…?”

She trailed off as she took in Chrome’s appearance. A tiny frown appeared on her face, and Chrome briefly thought he would die here. “Are you… part of the science club?”

“I- um, this is for a class.” Chrome managed to reply, voice cracking under her scrutiny. Science club? Was it something like the sciencers?

“Oh,” Yuzuriha replied, smiling once again. “Oh, hey, a weird question. You haven’t seen a boy named Ishigami Senkuu, right?”

“Uhhhh…” Chrome did his best not to look back at the exact person they were looking for. “No, why?”

“Oh no reason, he just disappeared, even left his schoolbag behind. If you see him, let him know we’re looking for him, please? Oh, I’m Yuzuriha! Nice to meet you!”

“And I’m Taiju!”

Chrome smiled sadly at them. “…I know. I mean, nice to meet you too. I’m… You can call me Chrome.”

“Like the browser?”

“Browser?”

Yuzuriha stammered out a quick goodbye and hauled her friend away with her.

* * *

“They’re gone,” Chrome breathed out once the hallways were silent again. He went to close the door before looking for his friend. If he was feeling shaken, he couldn’t imagine how Senkuu would be feeling.

“They sounded so young.” Senkuu said laconically. Before Chrome could say anything, the teen picked himself from the floor, dusting himself off, as if there was nothing wrong. “We should hurry.”

“Right,” Chrome replied, hurrying to retrieve their ethanol and stuffing it inside Senkuu’s bag after wrapping it in paper to minimize clinking.

“You did good,” Senkuu said out of nowhere, hands on his hips still giving his back to him. Still looking down to the floor. “Thanks for that.”

Chrome smiled, but it felt stupidly empty. “Let’s get out of here, Senkuu.”

* * *

It had been a rather quick thing, truth be told.

For all of the grief, and the hardships the world itself had faced, seeing the Nital working and seeing a stone sparrow take flight again, hope was born again.

It wasn’t all over.

It wasn’t, and they would make sure it would never be.

Chrome cried that night. He cried for what would never be. He mourned everything he would lose.

Senkuu wouldn’t sleep that night.

If you asked, he’d tell you he was just that busy.

But in truth, there was nobody to deceive.


End file.
